BEAT Cycling Club 2018 season review

2018 is the year in which BEAT Cycling Club started racing with a road team at UCI Continental level. This meant that right after the debut season of the BEAT Track Team in 2017/18, another debut season started for our cycling club founded in 2016.
The first year was a successful one for the team. Now the season is over, it’s time to look back. We did this with team member Piotr Havik, race coach Egon van Kessel and managing director of BEAT Cycling Club Geert Broekhuizen.

Piotr, you had a great season, take us through…

“It was a successful season, even better than I’d expected. I had some setbacks this winter, also on in my private life, but in the end the positive flow came back well after my victory in the Ronde van Overijssel (UCI 1.2). Then I also took two nice victories in kermesse races in Eindhoven and the Draai van de Kaai and of course the other strong results that me and the team achieved. In short, a very successful season and again I have shown to be able to handle Pro-Continental or World Tour level.”

Piotr Havik wins Ronde van Overijssel

Egon, if you look back at the season, what are your proudest moments?

“A lot of the boys rode at this level for the first time. I have never been asked for advice as often as this year. It is great to see how much they have learned and what steps they have taken, both physically and mentally.” Egon starts. “What I am also very proud of is that after a few months we could compete with the best teams. The highlight of this was the Antwerp Port Epic (UCI 1.1), when we were in the final with two riders amongst only Pro Continental riders.”

Geert, what will you remember from last season and how do you look forward to the next one?

I will remember the steps we made during the season. We have invested a lot of time in setting up the organization and by using intelligent scouting, periodization and guidance. In this way we were able to make impact and achieve successes with the current resources we have.

“We have formed a strong team and I think that we can really show ourselves again and be able to be emphatically present in races. Of course that also starts with a good racing program, which we are now compiling. We have become stronger with riders who can participate at the highest level one by one. I therefore expect that we will be more visible in the races, but also out of competition. The connection with the members and the partners of the club is in fact very important and at that point we are also going to make big steps forward with this team in the coming period.”